E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6 page 21 non-governmental information and his own fact-finding during the mission, the Special Rapporteur believes that torture, though on the decline particularly in urban areas, remains widespread in China. 73. Many factors contribute to the continuing practice of torture in China. They include rules of evidence that create incentives for interrogators to obtain confessions through torture, the excessive length of time that criminal suspects are held in police custody without judicial control, the absence of a legal culture based on the presumption of innocence (including the absence of an effective right to remain silent); and restricted rights and access of defence counsel. 74. The situation is aggravated by the lack of self-generating and/or self-sustaining social and political institutions including: a free and investigatory press, citizen-based independent human rights monitoring organizations, and independent, fair and accessible courts and prosecutors. 75. Judicial oversight is particularly important. One of the largest overall obstacles to eliminating torture in China is the institutional weakness and lack of independence of the judiciary, particularly in a context where police exercise wide discretion in matters of arrest and detention and are under great pressure to solve cases. Nor do there seem to currently be any truly independent monitoring mechanisms of places of detention or complaints mechanisms in China. The procuratorate is not perceived as an independent monitoring organ given its role in convicting suspects. Nor does the procuratorate have the requisite independence to meet the international criteria of a judicial officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power to take decisions on arrest. 76. At the provincial and municipal levels, the efforts of the central Government to reduce the practice of torture are significantly hampered by the degree of “localism” inherent in policing and criminal procedure, impeding the effective implementation of central regulations, guidance, training, prohibitions, etc. Such localism also impedes effective accountability and oversight. 77. The basic conditions in the detention facilities visited by the Special Rapporteur including food, medical care and hygienic conditions, seem to be generally satisfactory. But the Special Rapporteur was struck by the strictness of prison discipline and a palpable level of fear and self-censorship when talking to detainees. Detainees, particularly in pretrial detention facilities where they should enjoy the presumption of innocence, seem to spend many hours a day sitting in a fixed position and being forced to read to each other the Criminal Law or prison rules. 78. Even when serving long prison sentences, persons convicted of political crimes often have no right to work and very little time for recreation. They are usually not allowed to practise their religion. Convicted prisoners who have not confessed to their crimes are put under special education systems and are deprived of certain rights and privileges which converted prisoners enjoy, such as family visits, access to a telephone or the incentive of reduced sentences. Prisoners on death row are mixed with pretrial detainees and shackled with leg irons and sometimes also handcuffed for 24 hours a day. Such additional punishment is not compatible with the right to personal integrity, dignity and humanity.